There were several factors that could make this earthquake in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan one of the most momentous in recent decades.

A difficult-to-access mountainous region in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, where most people live in old adobe houses that collapse when subjected to severe earthquakes.

The heavy storms of the previous days, the mud houses were soaked, the ground softened, so that there were numerous landslides and many villages were cut off from the outside world.

And finally the timing of the quake, which the USGS rated as magnitude 5.9.

In the middle of the night, by 1:30 a.m. local time, most people were confined to their homes and buried under the rubble.

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

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As early as Wednesday afternoon, the provincial administration in Paktika reported that at least 1,000 fatalities were expected, and 1,500 people were injured.

But aid organizations assume that the numbers could increase significantly, as many of the affected villages remain cut off from the outside world and many people are missing.

The Taliban government sent several helicopters with aid supplies to the region that morning, but the options available to the Islamists who are under international sanctions and took power in Afghanistan last summer are limited - and the extent of the devastation is not yet foreseeable.

A farmer in a remote town told the BBC he alone recovered 40 bodies.

"Most of them were young, very young children." Although there is a hospital nearby,

Taliban Emir Haibatullah Akhundsada had a statement of condolence spread from Kandahar.

In Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the cabinet had met for an emergency meeting to decide on relief measures.

"In addition, we are asking all relevant organizations to send out rescue teams," Mujahid said after Afghan media reports.

The aid organization International Rescue Committee (IRC), which employs around 6,000 people in Afghanistan, reported to the FAZ that several organizations had come together to coordinate relief efforts and send mobile teams to the region.

The employee of an aid organization spoke to the FAZ of perhaps the greatest challenge that the Taliban government has faced since it took power.

Serious humanitarian crisis and economic collapse

They are also under international sanctions as a terrorist organization and the Afghan central bank's foreign assets have been frozen, leading to an economic collapse and a serious humanitarian crisis - although numerous exemptions from sanctions are intended to allow humanitarian assistance and international aid organizations continue to operate in Afghanistan .

But since assuming power, the Islamists have distanced themselves further and further from the demands that the international community makes as a prerequisite for further cooperation.

In the region around the Hindu Kush, where the Arabian, the Indian and the Eurasian plates meet, severe earthquakes occur again and again.

In 1998, during the first Taliban rule, an earthquake shook northern Afghanistan, killing several thousand people.

In Iran, a 2003 earthquake destroyed the historic city of Bam, killing more than 40,000 people.

In 2005, a devastating earthquake in Pakistan killed 75,000 people.

In 2015, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5, much stronger than that of Wednesday morning, claimed 400 lives in northeastern Afghanistan.